Best wellness benefits have employees at the National Debt Office who receive 5,000 kronor in wellness allowance and three wellness hours per week.
Worse is it for the employees at the country's universities which are also government agencies. At Halmstad University College, the wellness allowance is only 1,500 kronor and there is no wellness hour.
Set a good example
The state as an employer needs to set a good example. There is plenty of research that shows the connection between exercise and better health. We have high stress levels and government employees are a concentrated highly educated workforce that thinks these benefits are important, says Markus Furuberg.
The average agency offers its employees 2,550 kronor in wellness allowance and 139 of 196 surveyed agencies offer wellness hours, i.e. physical activity on paid working time, according to a review by the Academic Association SSR. Several agencies have however trust-based working hours where there may be an opportunity to take a wellness hour.
Of 196 surveyed agencies, all except two offer their employees wellness allowance, the Defence Forces and Luleå University of Technology, LTU. The Defence Forces offer their employees three wellness hours a week and LTU two.
Cheaper than rehabilitation
Even if it may be difficult to achieve in the next round of collective agreements, the dream scenario would have been an equivalent, high wellness allowance and access to wellness hours for all government employees, says Markus Furuberg.
It's something everyone would benefit from. We need agency employees who feel good and then the results will be better. Moreover, it's clearly cheaper to invest in that than what it costs to rehabilitate people.
It's difficult to discern any pattern as to which agencies get better benefits than others. The differences are large just within different county administrative boards in the country but there is a certain hint that agencies with more employees in more male-dominated professions also have more generous wellness benefits, according to Markus Furuberg.
Facts: Wellness for Swedish government employees
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Best:
The National Debt Office: 5,000 kronor in wellness allowance and opportunity for three wellness hours per week. The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority: 5,000 kronor in wellness allowance and two wellness hours a week.
Worst:
Halmstad University College: 1,500 kronor in wellness allowance and no wellness hour.
Source: The Academic Association SSR.
